Why?

Why would I write about Anne Frank, whose diary written long ago still graces classrooms across the world?  Why this story... what is it about a book written by a young Jewish girl, in hiding from the terrible plague of the Holocaust that would one day find her and take her young life?

It is such a simple story really.  She writes of feuds with her mother, crushes on boys, the perfect sister, of fears from hiding.... simple themes... realistic themes.  So delicately written, so authentic despite its translation.  Its simplicity and authenticity are its power.  We are drawn into her life, so easily. so seamlessly and we cannot leave from it without being scarred by it in some way.  Or.. at least I couldn't.  I read it as a young 7th or 8th grade boy, then watched the movie based on it, and I was transfixed by it.

And so, today, this 44 year old man, thinks of it again.  Her story has been around, it has been read, it has been made into countless media forms.  So what is left to do?  What new dynamic is there to add?

Well, one... at least one that I would like to try.

And so I begin.